I know I have been missing in action for a few weeks. I have been super busy pet sitting and taking care of my husband on crutches, as well as, working on my photo business and design shop for photographers. So look for some catch up posts this week as well.

Anyways, last Saturday was my husband's 30th Birthday so I made a cake in the shape of his favorite Air Jordan Shoe. This is my first carved cake and I think it turned out really well. Take a look!
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Over the Holidays, I decided to try making Cake Pops, which are basically cake crumbs mixed with icing, rolled into balls and covered in chocolate. If you want the recipe for these, check out Bakerella. She has tons of creative cake pops you can make. She also has a book on cake pops. So my first try was snowmen cake balls. I used candy coated sunflower seeds for the nose. Mini Reese's Pieces for the eyes, and an edible pen for the mouth. For the hat, I used a bell shaped Reese's peanut butter cup and dipped in chocolate (the kind that dries fast). Check out my first cake balls below!
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Next, I have a few cakes I made. The first is a present shaped cake I made for Christmas Eve. I ran out of time to finish it but it still looks okay. My in-laws loved eating it so that's good!
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Then, I made a flower themed cake for sister's 24th Birthday and a Notre Dame themed cake for my Dad's Birthday. I used fondant for the decorations on the cake. These chocolate fudge cakes were sooo delicious and all from scratch. The icing was chocolate fudge icing instead of the normal buttercream icing. Yum yum!
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Hope all these cakes didn't make you too hungry!
 
I made a super yummy carrot cake with cream cheese buttercream frosting for Thanksgiving! My family loved it, especially my Aunt & Uncle who had never seen my cake decorating skills before. My Aunt had to get a picture of it and I sent most of the cake home with them on their long 10 hr drive back to Indianapolis.

At first I couldn't decide what decorations to add to the cake, so I kept it simple...a few leaves and acorns all made out of fondant. Check out my beautiful Thanksgiving Cake!
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A cool picture emphasizing 'food' with my cake in the background. This is the table cloth my parents had on their table for Thanksgiving Dinner.
 
On 10-10-10, my friend, Jay, got married! I had the opportunity to make her wedding cake and grooms cake. It was fun but a lot of work! She wanted an ivory cake with burnt orange ribbon and brown polka dots. The cake had 3 tiers. The top tier was chocolate with chocolate filling, the middle tier was strawberry with strawberry buttercream (with real strawberries), and the bottom tier was white cake with buttercream filling. The exterior was iced in ivory buttercream. Check out the photos!
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I also made their grooms cake. Jay is a hardcore Bronco's fan and Ron is a Chiefs fan. So it was fitting to create a football field cake with these logos. I think it turned out really well! I made the logos out of fondant and used a grass tip for the grass. It was white cake with chocolate filling.
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I think I enjoyed making the grooms cake more because I got to be more creative and make the little fondant pieces. The wedding cake just takes forever to bake, fill and ice before you get to do any decorating. Looking forward to the next cake I get to make!
 
A few weeks ago I hosted a baby shower for a friend. The theme was airplanes because the babies nursery will be decorated in airplanes. I made a cute sign and a banner that matched the invitations.
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i also made a yummy cake. One tier was chocolate cake with chocolate filling and the other was white cake with buttercream filling. It was iced in all in buttercream. I decorated the cake with fondant letters and fondant airplanes.
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I wanted to add more decoration to this cake but ran out of time :(
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Punchtini
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The parents-to-be
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Airplane sugar cookies I made. Yummy. You can see they went fast.
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Me and the mom-to-be
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The diaper cake I made.
It was a fun evening with lots of couples and even babies. I hope the parents-to-be had a great time. I can't wait to meet Colton in November.
 
This weekend my nephew turned 7 years old and he really wanted a Jayhawk Cake. So I whipped up a delicious 2 tier Chocolate Fudge cake with Chocolate Fudge icing. I added fondant dots colored blue and red, a fondant #7, and a fondant Jayhawk made by me. The Jayhawk was surprisingly not as difficult as I thought. It just took some time. I traced a Jayhawk onto parchment paper then rolled out each color of fondant and using an exacto knife cut out the corresponding colors. Then using vanilla I pasted them together. For the finishing touch, I added a blue ribbon border and fondant letters spelling out Happy Birthday Tucker. I'm pretty sure he said this was his best birthday ever!  Here are few pictures from the party.
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Blow Tucker blow!
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Morgan and Sophie enjoying watching Tucker blow out the candles.
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Front of the cake..yes the lighting sucks. :(
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The fondant Jayhawk
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Back of the cake
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Brie enjoying a cupcake!
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The KU piggy bank we gave Tucker for his bday with a little bit of money it :)
 
If you like to decorate cakes then you have probably heard of the newest thing..the Cricut Cake Cutter. It cuts fondant shapes for you. There is a similar cutter out there for paper and now they have come out with this one for fondant. I would LOVE love love to get one of these. It is super expensive so I want to WIN one! Cuttlebug Challenge Blogspot is giving one away! Check it out if you want!
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I made an Easter Basket Cake yesterday for our Easter Dinner at work. It was a big hit. I baked a vanilla cake and made buttercream icing that I colored yellow. I used the basket weave tip to create a yellow basket weave around the cake. I didn't have the grass tip so I used tip 2 to create grass on top of the cake similar to that of an Easter basket. Then I filled the top with candy...peeps, jelly beans, peanut m & m's, etc. Then I made the handle out of floral wire and wrapped fondant around it and sealed it with vanilla. I then tied a ribbon around the basket to add a little pizazz. I let it dry over night and stuck it into the cake right before showing it. Everyone thought it was pretty neat. Pictures are below.
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I made a yellow cake with chocolate chip cookie dough filling and buttercream icing. The chocolate chip cookie dough filling is delicious.

FIRST MAKE EGGLESS COOKIE DOUGH: Cream the butter and brown sugar in a small bowl. Add water and vanilla and mix well. Add flour and salt and stir to combine.
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Stir in mini chocolate chips. Store in refrigerator until ready to use.
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THEN MAKE FROSTING:

(1) In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine 1-1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, unsalted butter, salt, and vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as necessary.

(2) Add milk and continue mixing until well combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, as necessary. With the mixer running, slowly add remaining 1/2 cup confectioners sugar, mix until well combined.
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(3) Add eggless cookie dough to mixture
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Ta da! Yummy chocolate chip cookie dough filling!
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Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Icing/Filling Ingredients
  • FROSTING BASE:
    1-3/4 cups confectioners sugar
    1/2 cup unsalted butter, chilled
    1/8 teaspoon salt
    1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
    1 tablespoon milk
    Eggless cookie dough (recipe below) EGGLESS COOKIE DOUGH:
    1/4 cup butter, softened
    1/4 cup brown sugar, plus 2 tablespoons
    2 teaspoons water
    1/2 teaspoon vanilla
    1/2 cup flour
    1/4 teaspoon salt
    1/3 cup mini chocolate chips (optional)

Instructions
    MAKE EGGLESS COOKIE DOUGH:
  1. Cream the butter and brown sugar in a small bowl. Add water and vanilla and mix well. Add flour and salt and stir to combine. Stir in mini chocolate chips (optional). Store in refrigerator until ready to use.
  2. MAKE FROSTING:
  3. (1) In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine 1-1/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, unsalted butter, salt, and vanilla, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula as necessary.
  4. (2) Add milk and continue mixing until well combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, as necessary. With the mixer running, slowly add remaining 1/2 cup confectioners sugar, mix until well combined.
  5. (3) Add eggless cookie dough to mixture
*recipe from Cake Central

I used the filling for the St. Patrick's Cake below, which is covered in fondant and fondant letters/decorations.
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I have finished Course 1, 2 and 3 of Wilton Cake Decorating classes at Michael's. I took them out of order and just finished Course 2. I learned how to make tons of flowers using royal icing and other techniques. My final cake was a butterscotch cake with buttercream icing, royal icing birds, and lots of royal icing flowers.
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Basket weave and rope border.
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